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Skunks are always on the prowl
I’m getting a lot of requests for this “Skunk Off” recipe to help people clean skunk spray off of unfortunate dogs that have encountered those little stinkers in their back yards.

One of my readers found a letter to the editor in a Chemical Engineering trade magazine a couple of decades ago and cut it out and forwarded it to me. A chemical engineer’s dog got sprayed and the engineer figured out an off-the-shelf formula that chemically neutralizes skunk spray. Unfortunately my reader didn’t include the name of the engineer who invented this, so we can’t thank him/her.

Stick this formula on your refrigerator door so it will be handy in case you ever need it. It’s easy to make and as I said, it chemically neutralizes that very bad smell.

TAKE: 1 quart of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide (from a pharmacy); ¼-cup baking soda; 1 teaspoon liquid soap (I use Dawn). Mix it all together and wash the sprayed animal, keeping the mixture out of its eyes, nose and mouth. Rinse with tap water.

Don’t bottle this stuff. The mix causes a mild chemical reaction and it could escape into a BIG mess if confined in a bottle.

Based on feedback from hundreds of users, this recipe, as listed, is a suitable quantity for a small dog. Double the above amount for medium-size dogs. Triple it for large dogs.

6 Responses to “SKUNK SMELL REMOVER”

Hi Gary–thanks for this recipe! My foxhound decided to try to rid us of a skunk in our yard and got a light spray as his reward. We spritzed him down with this mixture, rubbed it in, waited about 10 minutes and then spritzed again. Then I gave him a bath. While he doesn’t smell, sweet, he never did, and the improvement is appreciated! Interestingly, this is the same formulation I once paid $10 for on the internet as a solution for cat urine in the carpet. It works amazingly for that. You soak the carpet and let it air dry. Then the smell goes. In the case of using it on cloth, it is a good idea to see if the peroxide will change the color on a small spot first. Thanks again!

Suggestions please! A skunk has taken up residence under our house. We’ve been “spritzed” three times in six weeks during very noisy squatter’s rights disputes, and the essence stays in the house for a week! Being animal lovers, we don’t want to have it trapped and euthanized. We’re hoping you have a humane suggestion for relocating our tenant. We’ve made some phone calls, but the answers are “trap and euthanize.”

Finally, my gardener located the skunk. He basically had to crawl under the house to “flush” him out with a hose.

He then had to trench below, and a little beyond the decking, and place small-meshed chicken wire to block skunk accessibility. (The appearance of the chicken wire irritated me, so I had it surrounded with holly bushes — which I loved, as did the birds.)

Please help me get rid of skunk smell in my patio!! A baby skunk got into our enclosed outside patio, and there was a possum roaming around outside also.. the skunk sprayed the possum but also sprayed in our enclosed patio,not only does it smell outside but the outside enclosed patio is attached to the main house and the odor is coming into the house… How do we get rid of the smell….The odor kept me up all night the night before..How long does this odor last…Please help me get rid of this nasty odor.

Thanks for the remedy for the skunk smell. I used to live in Pleasant Hill and remembered reading about your “skunk off” mixture so I googled your name and there it was. I only had a small amount of hydrogen peroxide but it seemed to work anyway. Maybe because my dog didn’t hit really bad. We’re leaving on a trip in the morning so this could’ve been much worse without your solution.

For the person trying to get rid of skunk under her deck try putting a trouble light under there. It did the trick for me. I don’t think they like 24 hour lights!